The Gentlewoman's Art--Arranging Flowers
In Eastern lands they talk in flowers,
And they tell in a garland their loves and cares;
Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers,
On its leaves a mystic language bears.
--_Percival._
THE above is almost literally true! You may be surprised to know that
the arranging of flowers has not only long been considered an art, but
that for centuries it has been closely connected with the whole life of
a nation.
Away back in 1400, a certain ruler of Japan became so interested in this
fascinating subject that he resigned his throne in order to study that
and the other fine arts! One of his friends,--a great painter,--worked
out the scientific rules which are still generally accepted, and the
study became the pastime of cultured people. Moreover, Japan's greatest
military men have always practised the art, claiming that it calmed
their minds so that they could make clearer decisions on going into
battle!
[Illustration: BLOSSOMS IN JAPANESE ARRANGEMENT]
Briefly put, the Japanese ideas are as follows: First, to use very few
flowers (preferably three, five, or seven, with their foliage), and but
one kind together. Then to arrange these so that the three main blossoms
form a triangle,--the highest point of which they usually call Heaven,
the middle point Man, and the lowest point Earth. If five or seven
flowers are used, the others are the unimportant ones, and used as
"attributes," placed near the important points. And as many of their
favorite flowers, like the iris and the chrysanthemum, have quite
straight stems, people have to learn how to bend them without breaking.
Each flower is studied, selected for its place in this triangle, and
then, oh! so very delicately, shaped to the desired line.
And then as so few flowers would be apt to slip around, they skilfully
hold them in place by means of slender sticks, cut the exact size, split
at one end, and then sprung into place across the vase or bowl.
If the stems curve to one side, it is called the male style, if to the
other, the female style; the arrangement must look not like cut flowers,
but like the living plant, and suggest the growth by the use of buds,
open flowers and withered leaves. Good and evil luck are connected with
the placing, as well as with the colors and the numbers chosen,--even
numbers and red being ill-omened. Certain arrangements also suggest the
seasons, one style, for instance, representing spring and another
autumn. While we today are not interested in Japanese symbolism, we,
many of us, are quite interested in Japanese methods on account of their
artistic effects.
Many books have been written by the Japanese on their favorite
subject,--some as far back as the Thirteenth Century! Of course you
never could read them even if you could find them here; but a Western
woman spent a long time over there, studying under the guidance of their
priests, and recently wrote a book ("Japanese Flower Arrangement," by
Mary Averill,) which explains everything and is full of illustrations,
so that you can see for yourself the results of following the Japanese
way.
Her most interesting message for you may be one method they have of
making their flowers last. During moderate weather it can be done in
this country by simply holding the stems of the flowers in a gas or
candle flame until black and charred, and then putting the flowers in
very cold water for seven or eight hours.
Another book, with a lot of beautiful pictures showing us how to arrange
flowers to please better, perhaps, our American taste, is "The Flower
Beautiful," by Clarence Moores Weed. It illustrates most of our own
familiar flowers, in all kinds of artistic holders, and is sure to give
us new ideas about arranging them so as to enable us to bring out their
full loveliness. Both of these books should be found in any good Public
Library, and in looking them over, you will have a treat.
A prominent New York florist, in showing our Garden Club his methods of
arranging flowers, advised (for one thing) filling a low bowl with
broken twigs or branches, to hold the stems and keep the flowers in
position without crowding. Breaking up a few ferns to illustrate; he
dropped them in a cut glass dish, and then stuck in a dozen stalks of
pale pink primroses. The result was an inexpensive table decoration as
beautiful as any costly display of roses. Personally, I did not approve
of his ferns, as they would very quickly decay in the water: but as a
child I had learned from my grandmother his better idea of half-filling
the dish with clean sand. It holds the stems exactly as placed, and can
be entirely hidden by the foliage.
Roses, the gentleman also told us, draw up water above the surface only
one-half the length of the stem in the water, and consequently should
not extend more than that height above the water,--else the "forcing
power" (as it is called) will not carry it far enough to sustain the
flowers at the end of the stems. (This may account for my own success in
keeping roses often for a week, for I usually take them out of the
water, lay them in a wet box or paper, and place them flat in the
ice-box over night so the water in the stems can flow to the extreme
end.) He also said they should never be crowded together, but rather be
separated as the primroses were. Both the leaves and the thorns under
water should be removed, as the leaves quickly foul the water, and the
breaking off of the thorns opens new channels for nourishment to reach
the flowers.
The flat Japanese bowls so popular the past few years, are not only
artistic, but good for the flowers, which in them are not crowded, and
so can get their needed oxygen. They can be held in place by the
transparent glass holders if one objects (as the florist did,) to the
perforated frogs, turtles, mushrooms, etc., now to be bought wherever
vases and other flower holders are sold. Any one who has tried to
arrange even half a dozen blooms in this simple way will never go back
to the crude, old-fashioned mixed bouquet! On the tables of the fine
restaurants in New York City one most often sees only a simple, clear
glass vase, with perhaps only two or three flowers; but they can be
enjoyed for their full beauty.
The secret of the whole subject is _simplicity_!--and you never know
what you can do until you try. At our last Garden Show I had expected to
make a well-studied arrangement of wild flowers for that class of table
decorations, but did not have the time. At the last moment I took an odd
little glass basket, filled it with damp sand, and stuck it full of
cornflowers, (what you might call ragged robins or bachelor buttons, and
which I grow to go with my blue china,) so that the holder was nearly
hidden. On seeing it in place, on the show table, I frankly confess I
was quite ashamed of my effort, it looked so very modest: and you can
imagine my great surprise when I discovered later that it was decorated
with a coveted ribbon!
There is one way, however, in which the mixed bouquet can be put
together so as to look its best, and our florist-guest demonstrated it.
On coming to the close of his remarks he began picking up the flowers he
had been using in his various arrangements with his right hand and
placing in his left,--paying no attention whatever to what he took, nor
even looking at what he was already holding. Rose, daisy, jonquil,
primrose, everything, just as he chanced to find it at hand, went
together. _But_,--and here was the secret of the successful result--he
grasped them all at the extreme lower end of their stems, whether long
or short, so that the bouquet on being completed had that beautiful
irregular outline as well as the mixed color that Mother Nature herself
offers us in the garden! So if you ever have to put a quantity of mixed
flowers together, remember to do it this way.
And now a last word about flower growing. Don't you know that old adage,
ending "try, try again?" When you think of the great Burbank, growing
thousands upon thousands of a single kind of plant or flower in order
to develop one to perfection, you can have patience in spite of pests
and weather. I hope you will have quantities of the loveliest blossoms,
and for the happiest occasions of life.
May you realize all your fondest expectations.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
This text prefers "varigated" (three times) to "variegated" (once). This
was retained.
Preface, "nutritous" changed to "nutritious" (well as nutritious)
Table of Contents, "Flower-beds" changed to "Flower Beds" to match usage
in text (the Flower Beds)
Page 19, smallcaps added to first word of chapter to match rest of text.
Page 35, in the "Good for" column for "Hollyhock" the word "or" was
repeated. The original read
Back of
border or
or clumps
Page 40, "Paeonia" changed to "Paeonia" (Paeonia officinalis)
End of Project Gutenberg's Gardening for Little Girls, by Olive Hyde Foster